1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a holding apparatus and a method for manufacturing a honeycomb structure.
2. Discussion of the Background
In recent years, particulates, such as soot, contained in exhaust gases discharged from internal combustion engines of vehicles, such as buses and trucks, construction machines and the like, have become serious problems as contaminants harmful to the environment and the human body.
For this reason, various honeycomb filters, which use honeycomb structures including porous ceramic materials, have been proposed as filters that capture particulates in exhaust gases to purify the exhaust gases.
Conventionally, upon manufacturing the honeycomb structure, for example, first, a wet mixture is prepared by mixing a ceramic powder, a binder, a dispersant solution, and the like. Moreover, the wet mixture is continuously extrusion-molded through a die, and the extrusion-molded body is cut into a predetermined length so that a rectangular pillar-shaped honeycomb molded body is manufactured.
Next, the attained honeycomb molded body is dried, and predetermined cells are sealed so that either one of the ends of the cell is sealed.
The sealed honeycomb molded body is carried into a degreasing furnace, and a degreasing process is carried out thereto.
Next, the degreased honeycomb molded body is carried into a firing furnace, and a firing process is carried out thereto, and then cooled to manufacture a honeycomb fired body.
Thereafter, a sealing material paste is applied to the side faces of the honeycomb fired body, and by bonding the honeycomb fired bodies to one another, an aggregated body of the honeycomb fired bodies in which a number of honeycomb fired bodies are combined with one another by interposing sealing material layers (adhesive layers) is manufactured. Next, the attained aggregated body of the honeycomb fired bodies is cut into a predetermined shape such as a cylindrical shape and a cylindroid shape by using a cutting machine and the like so that a ceramic block is formed, and lastly, a sealing material paste is applied to the outer periphery of the ceramic block to form a sealing material layer (coat layer); thus, the manufacturing processes of a honeycomb structure are completed.
Conventionally, in order to transport the honeycomb structure manufactured as mentioned above, a holding tool such as a clamp having a cushioning material has been used. In the case of transporting the honeycomb structure by using such a holding tool, the holding process is carried out on the honeycomb structure with a tilted orientation, the honeycomb structure in the tilted orientation is held as it is, and the held honeycomb structure might fall in the middle of the transportation. Moreover, even in the case where the falling in the middle of the transportation is avoided, since the honeycomb structure is held in the tilted orientation, a corner portion or the like located near the border between an end face and a side face of the honeycomb structure is first brought into contact with a mount face, upon placing it at a predetermined position after the transporting process, to cause chippings and cracks on the corner portion or the like.
Here, in a device such as a line-type cap seamer used for automatically winding and tightening a cap onto an opening portion of a bottle container, as the container holding device used for carrying out rotation-stopping and centering operations on the bottle container, a container holding device in which a pair of supporting rollers of grippers placed on both of the sides of a container transporting path being used for pinching and supporting the container from both of the sides has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-20099.
In the above-mentioned container holding device, even in the case where the outer diameter dimension of the container is slightly changed, the rotation-stopping and centering operations can be carried out; however, since the paired grippers are simply driven at one time toward the container located on the line to pinch it from both of the sides, it is difficult to correct the orientation to an appropriate orientation when it is held, although the container can be fixed at that position.
Consequently, even in the case where an attempt is made to apply the above-mentioned container holding device to the holding process of the honeycomb structure, the application thereof is very difficult since an appropriate orientation is required in the holding process as mentioned above.
Therefore, there have been strong demands for the developments of a holding apparatus which is used in manufacturing processes of a honeycomb structure, and can naturally correct the orientation in the held state so that the honeycomb structure is held in its appropriate orientation, even in the case where the honeycomb structure is held with a tilted orientation. The contents of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-20099 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.